In a couple of months, I'll be on a trip with my family (parents and little brother) - twelve days in Warsaw, Krakow, Budapest, Vienna, and Prague. [Yes, for those of you counting, that's three vegetarians and an omnivore in Eastern Europe - this will be HILARIOUS, I am sure.] Does anyone have any suggestions for things to do, things to skip, things to eat, etc.? We'll be there at the very end of May through the first week of June. I've been to Vienna before, nearly twenty years ago when I was a wee, poor student, but I don't have specific memories that would be useful. I'd really appreciate any advice you've got to give.
And, just to say thanks in advance, a little story. I share an office with a girl we'll call N. She has a tendency to call out words as she's writing emails and reports, so that I can spell them for her and she can check her work. The other day she said "heifer." As we do not work in agriculture, I said, just to check, "As in, cow?" She asked, "Two F's?" I asked, "Can you give me the sentence you're using it in?" She said, "Yeah. 'You look like a -.'" I said, "Got it. H-E-I-F-E-R." She smiled, sent off her instant message, and settled back with a happy sigh at stirring up shit. And so my work days just fly by.
This same entry also appears on Dreamwidth, at http://innie-darling.dreamwidth.org/450104.html.
I was thinking of you the other day when I was on the phone with someone for work and he mentioned that he'd secretly always wanted to be an Egyptologist. Any chance I can coax you into visiting NYC in the nearish future?
I've never been to the Polish cities, but am terribly curious about them. I am terribly unhelpful about Budapest as all I did was eat (meat, but their sweets were pretty good too!), sleep, work, and wander the Christmas Market. But the waterfront is gorgeous at night! And my Prague/Vienna trip was probably 15, 20 years ago too! I remember my friends dragged me to a museum to see The Kiss as if it were a famous painting or something. And I being all not-in-tune with famous paintings just sort of humored them. But in the intervening 20 years, I've seen it replicated on everything, so I am always grateful to them for forcing a bit of culture on me. We also went to see the Opera in Prague which was cool, and they even had sub-titles, but they were in Czech, so not really helpful.
I've seen Christmas Markets in Germany, so I can imagine the one in Budapest - it must have been glorious. Ha, I too remember Vienna being the city of Klimt when I went.
Thanks for the contribution! And I know that's your usual icon, but it made me laugh that you used it on this heifer post.
I enjoyed eating the trdelnik, which are like spiral doughnuts covered in cinnamon sugar and almonds. The bread and pastries in the city were all pretty good. I also had some really delicious sauerkraut (who even knew that sauerkraut could be delicious?), so that's something vegetarians could eat, I suppose.
There's also a very odd little art museum on Petrin Hill: The Magic Grotto, which is a one-man show of fantasy art. I'm not sure it's worth going out of your way to see, but if you find yourself in the area, possibly worth a look.
Food-wise, the thing that sticks out most in my mind was a restaurant my co-workers and I went to where we tried ordering from the menu and the waiter kept telling us "no, you want this" and would point out another item not on the menu. There was also a wonderful restaurant that we went to in Buda that we never remembered the name of and simply called "the duck place." wonderful food but not cheap.
I didn't enjoy the plum wine native to the country but some might. I also recall the only place to get pizza or steak was an an Irish pub near the Basilica. I also remember the Hungarian language being completely incomprehensible to read.